BEGIN:VCALENDAR PRODID:-//Columba Systems Ltd//NONSGML CPNG/SpringViewer/ICal Output/3.3- M3//EN VERSION:2.0 CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260731T093811Z DTSTART:20261029T130000Z DTEND:20261029T150000Z SUMMARY:Those Serendipitous Mavericks: The Ratio Club and early British C ybernetics UID:{http://www.columbasystems.com/customers/uom/gpp/eventid/}i2z-ms8r22t f-dedrmp DESCRIPTION:A series of nine monthly seminars at the University of Manche ster exploring the rich and vibrant history of the radical science of cy bernetics\, and the potentially profound implications of this hitherto o ccluded history for our shared socio-technical futures.\n\nAll events wi ll run from 13:00 to 15:00 and will be hosted at the University of Manch ester.\n\nEvent details and registration: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e /meat-the-machine-or-the-hidden-history-of-cybernetics-the-possible-futu res-tickets-1995079941812\n\n1. Fire and Ice: The Conception\, Birth and Infancy of Cybernetics.\n\n24 September 2026\nIn 1948 Norbert Wiener pu blished Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. To the amazement of its author and publisher alike\, the book b ecame an instant bestseller and spawned a global intellectual movement t hat helped shape the world we inhabit today. The connection between cybe r and Cybernetics is far more than merely nominative.\n\n\n2. Those Sere ndipitous Mavericks: The Ratio Club and early British Cybernetics.\n\n29 October 2026\nImmediately after the publication of Cybernetics\, a grou p of ambitious young British life-scientists\, mathematicians\, engineer s\, and physicists formed a dining and discussion club centred on the ra dical ideas in Wiener’s book. Alan Turing was a member of the Ratio Club \, and his intersection with cybernetics and the Club’s members was cent ral to his later thought.\n\n\n3. Ghost in the Machine: The Battle for t he Human Mind.\n\n26 November 2026\nFrom the outset\, Wiener’s contempor aries understood that his new science of cybernetics exposed humanism\, if not humanity\, to mortal peril. In Britian particularly\, cybernetics ignited a heated philosophical debate between mental vitalism and mecha nism that was fought out across the mass media\, and which drew Alan Tru ing onto the public stage to openly defend his scientific heresy.\n\n\n4 . The Spectre of Automation: Robots in the New Jerusalem.\n\n28 January 2027\nThe contemporary impact of Wiener’s ideas spread far beyond the re surrection of Descartes’s ghost. In Britian and America alike Cybernetic s raised the prospect of economic automation and the societal scale repl acement of human labour\, cognitive as well as muscular\, from speculati on to imminent fact. For some\, this promised the final defeat of Malthu s\, for others it portended a decline to decadence.\n\n\n5. “It’s alive! ”: Prometheus\, Frankenstein\, and the Cyborgs.\n\n25 February 2027\nIn 1960\, Nathan Kline\, a psychiatrist\, and Manfred Clynes\, an engineer\ , gave their paper on “Drugs\, Space\, and Cybernetics: Evolution to Cyb orgs” to the Conference on the Psychophysiological Aspects of Space Flig ht at the School of Aerospace Medicine at Brooks Air Force Base in Ameri ca. Thus was the cyborg born from science not fiction\, and with it Mary Shelly’s dire prophecy rose again.\n\n\n6. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to th e Intergalactic Network: The real origins of the Internet.\n\n18 March 2 027\nCybernetics spread across the entire spectrum of American intellect ual life\, including the deep enclaves of the military-industrial-academ ic complex. Here it found expression not just in the foundational techni cal architectures of the experimental computer network that became the I nternet\, but also in the ideas its makers had about what it could becom e.\n\n\n7. A Tale of Beer\, Chile\, and Syn: Cybernetics in the service of socialism.\n\n20 April 2027\nIn the early 1970s Stafford Beer\, an ea rly and key British cyberneticist\, was invited to Chile by the young te chnocrat Fernando Flores. Beer’s task was to implement the ideas of cybe rnetics in a system that would enable the governance and regulation of C hile’s economy and society in accordance with the socialist principles o f Salvador Allende’s government. The CIA had other ideas.\n\n\n8. Algori thms against Neurons: The great schism between AI and cybernetics.\n\n27 May 2027\nThe American mathematician John McCarthy is generally credite d as the creator of AI. However\, what is less well known is why he came to this creation in the first place. McCarthy’s convocation of the Dart mouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence in 1956 was his conscious commencement of a deliberate yet covert schism between his ne w discipline of AI and cybernetics\, the consequences of which continue to be felt today.\n\n\n9. Transcendence or Termination?: Cybernetics\, t ranshumanism\, and the future.\n\n24 June 2027\nAccording to the ninetee nth century Russian Orthodox philosopher Nikolai Fyodorov\, the answer t o the question of the meaning of life was the conquest of death. For Fyo dorov and his followers\, humanity had been granted the gift of science by God so as to attain immortality and colonise space. Fyodorov’s cosmis m now sits alongside Wiener’s cybernetics in the form of transhumanism t hat pervades the modern culture of Silicon Valley.\n\nConnect with the C entre for Digital Trust and Society:\n\nThe Centre for Digital Trust and Society organises the DTS Guest Seminar Series and is a focal point for research across the University of Manchester that explores aspects of t rust and security in our digital world. The Centre is part of Digital Fu tures\, a highly interdisciplinary network which operates across the who le range of the University of Manchester's digital research.\n\nAbout Di gital Futures:\n\nDigital Futures is a highly interdisciplinary network that operates across the whole range of the University’s digital researc h. We aim to present a coherent overview of The University of Manchester 's digital research activity to external stakeholders and bring together research communities to explore new research areas and address strategi c opportunities.\n\nConnect with us:\n\nX: twitter.com/DigitalUoM\n\nBlu e Sky: bsky.app/profile/digitaluom.bsky.social\n\nLinkedin: linkedin.com /showcase/digital-futures-at-the-university-of-manchester\n\nWebsite: di gitalfutures.manchester.ac.uk\n\nNewsletter: tinyurl.com/digitalfuturesu om STATUS:TENTATIVE TRANSP:TRANSPARENT CLASS:PUBLIC END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR